Customer Reviews

The Path of Practice: A Woman's Book of Ayurvedic Healing

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I wish I could read this book aloud to cancer sufferers. Written as part memoir, part how-to guide, The Path of Practice is a conversational, self-described "course in healing and in living." Bri Maya maintains that "all pain is a reminder that we have strayed from the natural rhythms of life," and this book acts as a guiding light to bring us back.

My fascination with The Path of Practice took hold in the chapter on Bri Maya's personal ordeal with ovarian cancer. After fighting a two-and-a-half-year battle with operations and allopathic treatments, while simultaneously building a fast-paced career as a New York fashion designer, she retreated to the wintry woods of Vermont to die alone.

In that Vermont cabin, Bri Maya reconnected with her Indian roots of self-sustainment by baking Indian breads, sifting grains and grinding masalas. She spent six months immersed in journaling, meditation and prayers, and when she emerged from her retreat the cancer that had pervaded her vital organs had gone into remission. Bri Maya continued learning about the Vedas, reconnecting with Divine Mother, and disseminating her knowledge. She founded and runs the Wise Earth School of Ayurveda, and a charity, called Mother Om Mission, to reunite at-risk communities with the universe's natural rhythms.

Bri Maya has delved into a lifetime of experience and boiled it down into The Path of Practice, briefly but precisely explaining the key principles of sadhana, mantra, mudra, meditation, pranayama, chakras, ancestral legacies, cosmic sound and silence, doshas and cycles of the moon. Peppered with personal examples and appropriately chosen quotes from Vedic lore, this book is an excellent primer or reference book for those who feel drawn to reconnect with innate natural rhythms in their daily lives.

The chapters on "Sound medicine and spirit healing" and "The inner sound of the human voice" were of particular interest to me. Tejas, or soul vibration, "makes cosmic sound audible and produces our inner powers of transformation, our inner voice and intuition." She explains chanting exercises, prayers and mantras, and stresses the power of vibration and periods of silence. As I practised the Sanskrit chants, I serendipitously learned that the vibration will scare my kittens away from scratching up the rugeureka!

This book is a valuable cross-section of practices that facilitate a deeper connection with universal rhythms. Bri Maya's prose is lulling, accessible and entirely readable for the Ayurvedic novice, with enough comprehensive content to satisfy seasoned practitioners.

This book is a must for any woman (or man) who has a keen interest in building the best possible health practices. It has information ranging from uterine fibroids, which way to face when sleeping, to recipes and family relationship ideas. It is an extremely important book for today's reader.

As a beginner in the study of Vedic Practice, Bri Maya has written in words much that is wonderful, soft and serene. Perhaps the most difficult portion to describe is what is written between her lines.

The tender and affectionate tone of her words conveys all that I have hoped Ayurveda would be. She is a shinning example of what can be accomplished when a science based on infinite wisdom is applied with love.

Bri Maya has titled her book " A Womans Book of Ayurvedic Healing" and while I don't know her true intent here surely this is a lovely book for anyone. I was in awe and am now an official fan.

This book is a wonderful way to get back to your purpose, to reclaim your virtue as a woman and also learn from your surroundings how to become at peace with nature. I found this book to be insightful and a well-written; she is poetic and lends her experiences with cancer, being torn from her family, and revisiting her roots in India. This book was a gift from her brother and one of the best gifts I have ever received, her wisdom.

For anyone struggling to find a healing path, this book is well worth the read. I am a practicioner in the healing arts and have taken an interest in everything from juicing regimes to reike to iridology... But this book and its teachings really ring true and lay a solid foundation for anyone to overcome what ails them if they are willing to make the effort. For people who are ready to fully embrace a journey of self-healing and learning, this book will make perfect sense and might change your life. I found that it was helpful to keep a notebook nearby when I was reading so I could keep track of the information she covers: pages where she describes specific recipies, breathing excersises, etc.

It is not a book for the faint of heart, neither is it right for those who desire definite and concrete answers to their lives problems. While Bri Maya Tiwari offers a full richness of ancient Ayurvedic practices which may lead to deep insights they are far from what our Western culture would define as definite. Nothing is definite or concrete when you open your heart and mind to the wisdom of your own inner self. It is a very feminine quality which leads one to intuitive learning from our very own heart. If you are looking for ways to connect with the wisdom of your deeper self through finding your ancestral roots and your connection to the Divine Mother you may find the book helpfull. Bri Maya's journey opened the doors which my culture kept shut for over one thousand years, the doors to the the vast ocean of universal knowledge (knowledge that does not rely purely on reason) that dwells within us and is available to an ardent seeker.

I learned of this book at a lecture on Ayurvedic medicine, which was the first time I had heard about these practices.

I agree with the other reviewers who praised Tiwari's prose. In general the book is relaxing and easy to read.

I also agree with the reviewers who found some of the religious imagery a bit over the top. I think most of the anecdotes come across as far-fetched, wishful thinking.

Nevertheless, the recipes are useful, and it also serves as a nice reference for a variety of meditation practices. Much of what she says strikes a balance between traditional practices and modern-day life with Western medicine. I like that she doesn't completely discount science, although some of her advice (to drink rainwater, for example, as if it's safe to do that anywhere!) seems ignorant and unsafe to me.

Perhaps what I found most frustrating is that Tiwari herself has chosen to effectively 'check out' of society. I would find her more useful as a role model if she had found a way to merge her Vedic practices with a successful career doing something other than teaching meditation, cooking and music while living in a log cabin.